Venezuelan Victims

As our national attention is riveted on a myriad of local stories, most of which are political in nature, the people of Venezuela are languishing. In what is perhaps one of the most underreported stories of this year, Venezuelans are on the brink of staging an all out revolt. Tensions are so high in this volatile South American nation that even the future of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is uncertain.

A confluence of calamities has brought the country to the brink of collapse. Plummeting crude oil prices have pilfered Venezuela’s economy and a severe drought has strained the nation’s hydroelectric power supply, forcing the government to enact rolling blackouts and enforce a two-day work week just to save power. Along with these troubles, food is becoming scarce and medical care is becoming even poorer than it already was. A headline from The New York Times says it all: “Dying Infants and No Medicine: Inside Venezuela’s Failing Hospitals.”

Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is something that deserves and demands our attention and thoughtfulness. There are lessons to be learned here.

We can learn that corruption – no matter how powerful it may seem for a season – cannot stand. Like Hugo Chavez before him, Mr. Maduro is a corrupt head of a corrupt government. By one count, government officials there have stolen some $350 billion public tax dollars, using them to line their personal pockets. Outside economic factors certainly play a roll in Venezuela’s high poverty rate, but the government isn’t helping matters. Venezuela’s politicians are stealing from their own people, taxing them into poverty while they live in luxury. And the people have had enough. And they are revolting.

The apostle Paul reminds us that the government is “that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). And this is certainly true. God establishes governing authorities and we are to respect and pray for them. But, to borrow a phrase from Job, “The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away” (Job 1:21). If history is any indication, the Lord has no problem wresting power from governments that would misuse and abuse their authority against their own people. And the Venezuelan government’s turn for downfall – with Mr. Maduro at its head – may be coming soon.

It is also important to point out that human crises, no matter how foreign or far away they may seem from our perspective, cry out for our compassion and attention. Scenes of cold incubators and critically wounded people in squalid conditions betray not only the incompetence and corruption of a government that demands our repudiation, but the pain and fear of a people who deserve our compassion. Stories of people’s pain – even if they’re a hemisphere away – demand our engagement.

All this is to say that Venezuela needs a change. What is happening there now cannot continue. Americans, understandably, have not been all too friendly with the Venezuelan government. And this is wise. Cozying up to corruption, after all, only breeds and makes one complicit in further corruption. Furthermore, sending relief to the Venezuelan people is complicated. What we send often ends up in the wrong hands. But even with these complicating factors, the Venezuelan people are hurting. And as such, they deserve our notice – and our prayers.

Socialism/Communism has its own god,Karl Marx, and its own bible Das Kapital. It is not about helping the poor and it certainly is not about doing your best with the help of God. It is an evil lie to the most vulnerable in all societies. Pray for Venezuela.